Particle effects learning resources - Where?
polycounter lvl 8
Hi, Polycount. First-time post here, so I hope I explain myself clear enough here.
I'm learning more about creating special effects for games, and I was wondering if anyone here know of some useful resources that explain some of the process of making game particle effects--particularly with the use of alpha textures on plane meshes, the kind of particle effects you see with special attacks in RPGs, and for use with game engines like Unity.
Just to add, I'm not particularly interested in using Unity's Shuriken particle system, as I think making the particle effects from scratch in a 3D modeling package will produce better results.
I'm talking more about the kind of effects you see here, both created by the same person (takanair09, hailing from Japan):
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPSUSINvzMY"]Example video 01[/ame]
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq9bE59nta0"]Example video 02[/ame]
Though, I can see what method that takanair09 used (animated plane meshes with alpha textures on them), but for some reason, I still find myself needing to pick up a few pointers towards the actual illustration process of the alpha textures.
Seems like some folks use hand-painted alpha textures while some use renderings from 3D packages, but I'd like to see more of how anyone goes about hand-painting alpha textures. I think if I could just see something go through making one of these kinds of effects, I can take it from there.
I'm not really looking for anyone to give me a fully-detailed breakdown of the process (though, I'd gladly take that if anyone does). I'll be glad to get a good link or two to some good references, as for the life in me, I can't seem to find many references on this very topic. Even the special effects section here on Polycount is not quite what I'm looking for here.
Or perhaps even if any of you could share just a bit of how any of you go about making particle effects. Even just a simple picture would be appreciated.
But anything given would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I'm learning more about creating special effects for games, and I was wondering if anyone here know of some useful resources that explain some of the process of making game particle effects--particularly with the use of alpha textures on plane meshes, the kind of particle effects you see with special attacks in RPGs, and for use with game engines like Unity.
Just to add, I'm not particularly interested in using Unity's Shuriken particle system, as I think making the particle effects from scratch in a 3D modeling package will produce better results.
I'm talking more about the kind of effects you see here, both created by the same person (takanair09, hailing from Japan):
[ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPSUSINvzMY"]Example video 01[/ame][ame="
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq9bE59nta0"]Example video 02[/ame]Though, I can see what method that takanair09 used (animated plane meshes with alpha textures on them), but for some reason, I still find myself needing to pick up a few pointers towards the actual illustration process of the alpha textures.
Seems like some folks use hand-painted alpha textures while some use renderings from 3D packages, but I'd like to see more of how anyone goes about hand-painting alpha textures. I think if I could just see something go through making one of these kinds of effects, I can take it from there.
I'm not really looking for anyone to give me a fully-detailed breakdown of the process (though, I'd gladly take that if anyone does). I'll be glad to get a good link or two to some good references, as for the life in me, I can't seem to find many references on this very topic. Even the special effects section here on Polycount is not quite what I'm looking for here.
Or perhaps even if any of you could share just a bit of how any of you go about making particle effects. Even just a simple picture would be appreciated.
But anything given would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
Replies
http://wiki.polycount.com/CategorySpecialEffects
For example
http://tech-artists.org/forum/showthread.php?2527-Getting-Started-in-VFX
As for particle texturing, a great way to learn is to extract the textures from a game and take a good look. Best to get a game editor, so you can see the fx in motion too. UDK, CE3, Unity, all are great for this. Also don't knock Shuriken, you might be amazed how far xfv artists can take it with fairly simple tools. It's always more about the artist's talent than about the tool.
My 2 cents. Keep asking questions!
Yeah, I've checked all those links out, but most of them seem to be geared towards UDK's Cascade system, which, while is a great system, I was looking for more a traditional way of particles. But I will search them over again, just in case there is some texture-painting aspect to them that I somehow missed.
As for your second suggestion, though, I'm not quite sure what you mean by extracting the textures from a game, unless you mean ripping models from a game. I know how to do that, though, by only...questionable alternative means...and I try to stay away from that route. Though, if you know another free and easy way to do this, I'm all ears. lol
And I do know of example files that come freely available with Unity, but again, those tend to use Unity's legacy particle system or Shuriken, which, at the moment, haven't been quite not what I'm looking for here.
Shuriken is a versatile system and I've seen some great work done with it; however, I find that most of its results (even among its best results) tend to come out looking...well, do you know how Flash animation somehow sticks out a bit noticeably and "sharper" against a more "flatter" painted background? Case in point...:
[ame="
It's probably not noticeable to some people, but there's a bit of a noticeable quality difference. I mean, it's good work, but it still comes off a bit too "Flash animation-y" to me. I hope that Flash analogy kinda explains a bit of what I'm talking about.
It's enough of a difference that makes a Unity-built game feel immediately like a "Unity game" and that's exactly the kind of quality I'm trying to avoid with using Unity. (No offense to other Unity-built games, and no discredit to ryanjamesblanchard's good work there.)
Though, I'll keep experimenting with Shuriken. I do use Shuriken for some easy steam/smoke/dust effects, but it wasn't quite meeting my standard for everything else, like explosions and charge-up attack effects, even with using my own alpha textures.
But I'll keep trying it out, and keep examining particle texturing work with further comparing with other games using the ol' "pause the video" way. Hey, maybe I'll even push Shuriken to newer heights. I think I just needed to hear another person encourage using Shuriken some more.
Anyways, I sure hope this wasn't too much yakking. Thank you very much for your input! I appreciate your two cents. And I'll remember those references again for my UDK side project.
Unity... we're using it right now to make our game. And our fx artists are fucking badass, IMHO. Even more amazing is we moved away from an emitter-based system, for performance reasons. And they're still doing totally excellent work. I don't know, take a look and see what you think, might still seem too flat to you? Play the game and see.
http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1666784#post1666784
check the first entry (at the moment)
The last one, VFX for Games should be particular interesting for you. Sascha did a great job explaining the various steps of creating particles (rendering from Max, touching up in Photoshop, usage in an Engine).